Week 11 turned the Heisman race into a moving target, and the biggest swing belonged to Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr.
Carr surged to the front of the board after steering the Irish past No. 1 Miami, 31-24, in a game that reshuffled the top of the market and knocked Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah out of the favorite’s spot.
Carr moved from +1175 to +140 after completing 29 of 40 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Mensah slid from +156 to +300 after the loss.
Carr’s night started to tilt the game Notre Dame’s way early in the third quarter, when the Irish had already built a 24-3 cushion. He hit Jordan Faison for a 27-yard touchdown, found Micah Gilbert from 18 yards out 29 seconds before halftime, then connected with Gilbert again from 20 yards after a long Faison punt return.
Miami made it uncomfortable by trimming the margin to 24-17, but Carr answered on fourth down early in the fourth quarter with a 36-yard swing pass to Nolan James Jr. That play set up the 1-yard touchdown run that restored a two-score lead for Notre Dame.
Carr also had a personal layer to the performance. His first career start came in last year’s opener, a 27-24 loss at Miami.
“My Dad called me before this game,” Carr said. “His words were, ‘There was a boy out there playing at Miami.’”
Notre Dame entered the weekend No. 11 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, and the win over the top-ranked team keeps its playoff path alive. The Saline, Mich., native now has 2,168 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and one interception for the 8-1 Irish.
Mensah had to work without Malachi Toney, who needed surgery on a high ankle sprain suffered in practice Wednesday. Miami was already in a hole at halftime, trailing 17-3 while Mensah went 6 of 12 for 49 yards. The Hurricanes also came away with only a field goal after reaching first-and-goal at the 1.
He did help Miami claw back, throwing scoring passes to Cooper Barkate twice and Elija Lofton once to cut the deficit to a touchdown on two separate occasions. But Luke Talich picked him off in the third quarter, and later Talich broke up a fourth-down throw to Lofton in the end zone with 3:36 remaining.
“Proud of the guys, the way we fought back,” Mensah said. “Obviously, it wasn’t enough.”
Mensah, the former Duke quarterback, has 28 touchdown passes and two interceptions for the 8-1 Hurricanes, who host his old team next.
Jeremiah Smith’s Heisman stock took the opposite route. Ohio State’s star receiver dropped to +410 after the Buckeyes suffered a second straight loss, 41-28 to Oregon.
Smith caught a 32-yard pass on Ohio State’s second scoring drive as the Buckeyes opened up a 14-0 lead, then disappeared from the action from the first quarter until late in the third while Oregon ripped off 38 unanswered points. He was also seen yelling at coaches and teammates on the sideline as the fourth quarter opened.
His 13-yard touchdown catch with 3:25 left came too late to change the outcome, though the 133 yards gave him 16 career 100-yard receiving games, an Ohio State record.
True freshman Luke Fahey made his second start with Julian Sayin injured, and coach Ryan Day said the staff will “evaluate everything” after the back-to-back losses. “There’s just something that needs to change and needs to get fixed,” Day said.
Smith now has 69 catches for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns for the 6-3 Buckeyes.
Another big mover was Utah quarterback Devon Dampier, who jumped into the top five at +1500 after a four-touchdown performance in the first Holy War between top-10 teams. Dampier ran for a 22-yard score on Utah’s opening drive, threw touchdown passes of 46 and 14 yards to Braden Pegan, and finished the job with a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter.
He also caught a 29-yard pass on a trick play, while Utah’s defense intercepted BYU’s Bear Bachmeier four times. The win snapped a three-game losing streak in the rivalry and left Utah and UCLA as the only unbeaten FBS teams.
Utah lost 24-21 at BYU last season, and Dampier said the result stuck with him. “I definitely felt some type of way about last year,” Dampier said. “Just me not being at my healthiest, me not being able to show up when my team needed me.”
The New Mexico transfer has 2,053 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions, plus seven rushing scores, for the 9-0 Utes.
North Texas transfer Mestemaker also made a major leap, shortening from +4000 after putting together a one-of-a-kind game in Oklahoma State’s 49-14 halftime cruise over Kansas State. He became the first FBS player with four touchdown passes, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in one game since Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong in 2021. Mestemaker finished 22 of 28 and even caught a 5-yard touchdown from Wyatt Young.
The performance marked his eighth straight 300-yard passing game, breaking the program record he had shared with Mason Rudolph a week earlier. New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey was in Manhattan, Kan., to watch.
“Playing a game like that gets everyone back on track,” Mestemaker said one week after a 51-49 loss at Iowa State.
The 6-3 Cowboys host Texas Tech, the reigning Big 12 champion.
Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton also climbed, moving from +5500 to +2300 after accounting for five touchdowns in a 42-7 win at Ole Miss that ended the Rebels’ 16-game home winning streak. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss fell from +1375 to +4500 after going 18 of 34 for 170 yards with an interception and five sacks.
“It was surprising how poorly we started, it’s embarrassing,” Chambliss said.
Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell re-entered the top 10 after throwing three touchdown passes in a 31-13 win at LSU. South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers added a clinching 41-yard touchdown run on an injured ankle in a 17-9 win over Texas A&M.
Duke running back Nate Sheppard also forced his way into the conversation with 217 rushing yards and three touchdowns in a 41-3 win at NC State, setting the program’s single-season rushing touchdown record. Toney dropped out of the top 10 after his surgery, along with Oregon State’s Jesse Legree, LSU’s Sam Leavitt and Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez.
- QB Gunner Stockton, Georgia (+2300)
- QB Keelon Russell, Alabama (+2400)
- QB Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (+4500)
- QB LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina (+6800)
- RB Nate Sheppard, Duke (+7000)
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